"The world looks to the priest, because it looks to Jesus! No one can see Christ; but everyone sees the priest, and through him they wish to catch a glimpse of the Lord! Immense is the grandeur of the Lord! Immense is the grandeur and dignity of the priest!"
(Bl. John Paul II, Rome, Italy, October 13, 1979)

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Apostolic Exhortation on the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day - Pope John Paul II (1992) Part 10

In the Church as Mystery, Communion and Mission

12. "The priest's identity," as the synod fathers
wrote, "like every Christian identity, has its source in the Blessed
Trinity,"(20) which is revealed and is communicated to people in Christ,
establishing, in him and through the Spirit, the Church as "the seed and
the beginning of the kingdom."(21) The apostolic exhortation
Christifideles Laici, summarizing the Council's teaching, presents the Church
as mystery, communion and mission: "She is mystery because the very life
and love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the gift gratuitously offered
to all those who are born of water and the Spirit (cf. Jn. 3:5) and called to
relive the very communion of God and to manifest it and communicate it in
history [mission]."(22)

It is within the Church's mystery, as a mystery of
Trinitarian communion in missionary tension, that every Christian identity is
revealed, and likewise the specific identity of the priest and his ministry.
Indeed, the priest, by virtue of the consecration which he receives in the
sacrament of orders, is sent forth by the Father through the mediatorship of
Jesus Christ, to whom he is configured in a special way as head and shepherd of
his people, in order to live and work by the power of the Holy Spirit in
service of the Church and for the salvation of the world.(23)

In this way the fundamentally "relational"
dimension of priestly identity can be understood. Through the priesthood which
arises from the depths of the ineffable mystery of God, that is, from the love
of the Father, the grace of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit's gift of unity,
the priest sacramentally enters into communion with the bishop and with other
priests(24) in order to serve the People of God who are the Church and to draw
all mankind to Christ in accordance with the Lord's prayer: "Holy Father,
keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as
we are one...even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may
be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (Jn. 17:11,
21).

Consequently, the nature and mission of the ministerial
priesthood cannot be defined except through this multiple and rich
interconnection of relationships which arise from the Blessed Trinity and are
prolonged in the communion of the Church, as a sign and instrument of Christ,
of communion with God and of the unity of all humanity.(25) In this context the
ecclesiology of communion becomes decisive for understanding the identity of
the priest, his essential dignity, and his vocation and mission among the
People of God and in the world. Reference to the Church is therefore necessary,
even if not primary, in defining the identity of the priest. As a mystery, the
Church is essentially related to Jesus Christ. She is his fullness, his body,
his spouse. She is the "sign" and living "memorial" of his
permanent presence and activity in our midst and on our behalf.

The priest
finds the full truth of his identity in being a derivation, a specific
participation in and continuation of Christ himself, the one high priest of the
new and eternal covenant. The priest is a living and transparent image of
Christ the priest. The priesthood of Christ, the expression of his absolute
"newness" in salvation history, constitutes the one source and
essential model of the priesthood shared by all Christians and the priest in
particular. Reference to Christ is thus the absolutely necessary key for
understanding the reality of priesthood.

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Prayer for Priests

"O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church: Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit, and give power to the words of Priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord. Lord, give us holy Priests; You yourself maintain them in holiness. O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil's traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of Priests.

May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of Priests, for You can do all things." ~~ St. Faustina's Diary #1052